An asylum reform bill proposed by the British government is set to become law after overcoming a final hurdle in parliament on Wednesday.
The House of Lords, the upper house of the British parliament, passed the bill and rejected a last-minute amendment to the text, meaning it will now become law once it has gained royal assent.
The reform will enforce tougher sanctions on people smugglers and migrants who arrive in the country illegally, as well as outsourcing the consideration of asylum applications to a third country.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative government announced two weeks ago an agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers who arrived illegally in the United Kingdom to the African nation.
He had promised to control immigration, a key issue in the Brexit campaign, but the number of illegal crossings to the UK tripled in 2021, a year marked by the deaths of 27 migrants at sea in November.
Faced with criticism, the government has defended the bill as necessary to break lucrative smuggling networks and to dissuade migrants from making dangerous sea crossings.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the approval of the British law "undermines established international laws and practices for the protection of refugees".
In a statement, High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said he was "concerned by the UK's intention to outsource its obligations to protect refugees and asylum seekers to other countries".
He stressed that such a move would be against "the letter and the spirit of the refugee convention".
British NGO Oxfam condemned the approval of the law with one of its senior figures Sam Nadel calling it a "devastating blow for families fleeing conflict and persecution".
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the Prime Minister's Questions at the House of Commons in London. Credit: UK PARLIAMENT
They described it as described as unworkable, inhumane, and a grim reflection of Australia's internationally criticised asylum seeker policy.
Director of Advocacy at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Jana Favero, said the UK's decision is a dark stain on the country's history.
"There is absolutely no justification for offshore detention. The Australian government has tried it twice now and both times it has been an absolute policy failure," Ms Favero told SBS News.
"It is absolutely bewildering why another country would try to copy something which is such a financial and moral black hole."
Ms Favero says offshore processing is a system of re-traumatising those who are trying to flee violence and terror.
"What is so shocking about Rwanda is as recent as last year, the UK granted refugee status and asylum to people fleeing persecution in Rwanda. So what does that mean for someone who's fleeing from Rwanda in the future, they could then be sent back to their place of persecution?
"It really doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And it's only based on cruelty, and the ideology that people should not seek asylum by boat."
